The invention relates to aircraft noise reduction apparatus, in particular but not exclusively, to aircraft noise reduction apparatus on an aircraft landing gear.
It is increasingly important to reduce the noise created by aircraft when landing or taking off from an airport. In particular, when an aircraft is landing, developments in aircraft technology mean the aircraft engine noise has been significantly reduced. The dominant noise created by some aircraft when landing, as perceived at ground level, is starting to become the airframe noise. In order to reduce airframe noise the use of noise reduction apparatus, or fairings, is known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,587 discloses a fairing for an aircraft landing gear, the fairing placed to deflect air away from noise inducing components of the landing gear.
However, if using a fairing as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,587 it may become necessary for the ground crew at an airport to access the noise inducing components screened by the noise reduction apparatus, for example a tow bar on a nose landing gear. A possible solution to this access problem includes the provision of bolts or other similar fixing mechanisms which enable the fairings to be detached or moved out of the way by the ground crew once the aircraft has landed. However, this increases the time it takes for a ground crew to deal with an aircraft and introduces the risk that the fairing is not properly secured to the aircraft prior to the aircraft taking off.
Embodiments of the present invention seek to mitigate or overcome one or more of the above-identified disadvantages.